


come a little closer

by neverwantedtodance



Category: Free!
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, blame rin for that last tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 12:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4564608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverwantedtodance/pseuds/neverwantedtodance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru <em>smiled</em> at him. And not just any smile, no, this was one of those special smiles he’d only seen directed at water and mackerel, neither of which were present at the moment in the vicinity (Rin double-checked behind him just to make sure).<br/>“Hi baby,” he said in an unnaturally cheery and definitely un-Haru-like voice, “is this guy bothering you?”</p><hr/><p>Or, a chance encounter with a stranger in a bar leads Rin and Haru to talking about something they should've done a long time ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	come a little closer

**Author's Note:**

> so i set myself this small challenge of making a list of random prompts, and then blindly matching one with a pairing from free and writing a oneshot about it  
> but i have a lot of free pairings so this may take a while lmao  
> so my first one was rinharu + 'cover' but idk how my mind made the connection to fake dating it just?? happened  
> and thus, this was born  
> there's kissing, alcohol, and crying. plus rin thinks obscene things about haru, who generally just teases him. enjoy!!
> 
> BONUS  
> drinking game: take a sip every time rin thinks or does something embarrassing or sexual about haru  
> (make sure you have the hospital on speed dial)

To be quite honest, it wasn’t the kiss that surprised Rin the most – not the way he fleetingly thought of how kissing Haru was _way_ better than he’d imagined (and he’d imagined a _lot_ of different possibilities) nor the way he was uncharacteristically dominant, his thin fingers weaving into and tugging on Rin’s hair and his teeth biting down on Rin’s lower lip, once, tender yet vicious at the same time, before pulling away.

No, while those things may have caused Rin to re-think a couple of his fantasies and now question their accuracy, they didn’t shock him as much as what happened next.

Haru _smiled_ at him. And not just any smile, no, this was one of those special smiles he’d only seen directed at water and mackerel, neither of which were present at the moment in the vicinity (Rin double-checked behind him just to make sure).

Haru was smiling at Rin like he had just offered the man a lifetime’s supply of fried mackerel fillets coupled with the chance to be a mermaid.

(Rin made a mental note of that one; Haru’s birthday was coming up soon after all.)

Haru slipped his arm around Rin, casual and suave, and pressed a kiss to Rin’s cheek, which currently resembled more of a strawberry than anything. He couldn’t help it. If Haru kept this up, he’d be the same colour as his hair in less than five minutes.

“Hi baby,” he said in an unnaturally cheery and definitely un-Haru-like voice, “is this guy bothering you?”

Haru flashed a death glare at the guy in question – a tall, bearded fellow in a sweat-soaked green t-shirt who’d been bothering Rin for the past ten minutes, and who appeared to be about fifteen years older. Before he’d been an annoying mixture of arrogant and disturbing, but now he was paling considerably under the weight of Haru’s stare, which, to be fair, did look like it could wilt flowers, Rin noticed as he snuck a glance upwards. He felt a sudden stab of gratitude he wasn’t on the receiving end of it. Who knew Haru could be so terrifying?

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Rin caught on quick despite his initial paralysis and smiled back at Haru, trying to convey the half of him that was screaming ‘I love you so much, let’s fuck against this very part of the bar’ in his expression, and not the half of him that was just plain screaming in panic, because _oh holy fuck he just kissed Haru_. Or rather, Haru had kissed him.

Elementary school him would be having a field day right now. Not that the current him was faring much better.

“No, everything is fine,” Rin said, quite truthfully, because he was currently walking on cloud nine. For extra measure, he cuddled into Haru’s side (okay, maybe that was a bit self-indulgent and totally unnecessary, but he wasn’t above taking advantage of the situation). He could’ve sworn he felt Haru’s arm tighten around him.

He turned back to the creep, who was now staring at them with uneasiness in his eyes.

“In fact, he was just leaving, right?” Now, Rin fixed his own glare upon the man, showing off his teeth for good measure.

The man physically blanched, turned tail, and scurried away, grumbling to himself. Haru’s fierce glare followed him until he was out of sight.

(Jeez. He’d spent the entirety of his vacation around Haru and Makoto, even staying in their apartment, and the one night he was on his own, Haru managed to find him. _Brilliant_.

Not that he minded Haru’s company. The opposite, in fact.)

Rin burst into nervous, slightly frenzied laughter, not quite sure what to do, as Haru silently disentangled himself from Rin after a beat and sat down on the chair next to Rin’s.

Laughing was a better alternative to crying anyway, but Rin was pretty close to doing that too. Whatever. He’d done enough crying in public as a teenager to last him a lifetime.

 _Funny how Haru was always present or involved whenever it happened_ , he mused, only to remember that the man in question was sitting right beside him. His heart promptly stalled, like a beat-up old car that, for some reason, refused to give up quite just yet.

Haru nonchalantly took a sip out of Rin’s own glass.

The adolescent in him screamed that this was technically the second time they’d kissed.

Rin took a moment to compose himself, but before he could speak, Haru did.

“Stop acting like a restless fool,” he said.

Rin scoffed. “Whatever. At least I have my big tough boyfriend to help me out if anyone else wants to take a short at this fool,” he joked, reverting back into his flirtatious self he’d so easily learned to put on around people. But especially Haru.

Haru shrugged.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rin asked. Unlike Makoto, he couldn’t yet read every one of Haru’s little idiosyncrasies.

The thought cuts into him, sharp like a knife. _If only you hadn’t gone to Australia_ –

He pushes it down, focuses on _now_ , on Haru.

“It means that I can’t be bothered to argue with you. It’s true, anyway. I don’t like the idea of strange guys touching you,” Haru says calmly, looking into the bottom of Rin’s glass like it holds the meaning of life.

Rin’s mind is in overdrive, trying to sort Haru’s last sentence into friend or flirt territory. On a stupid, slightly intoxicated whim, he goes with the latter part.

“And the boyfriend part?” he practically whispers, yet he knows Haru will hear, even if he doesn’t react.

He could swear that there’s a smirk on his face as he turns his head to look at Rin. A small smirk, but it’s there.

“That can be true if you want it to be,” he says, so fleetingly and indifferently that Rin thinks he must’ve imagined it.

He’s still trying to wrap his head around that mind-blowing numbingly awesome five-star-porn-movie-worthy kiss. Adding this to the mixture is just cruel.

Then again, he’s always been a masochist when it comes to Haru.

In a totally non-sexy way.

… Okay, maybe that was a lie.

Rin snapped himself out of his fantasies and realised Haru was still staring at him, that infuriating Mona Lisa smile still on his face.

He scoffed trying to act as coolly as Haru, even if his brain was currently severely malfunctioning. “Don’t just say things like that,” he griped.

“So you don’t want it to be true,” Haru contemplated.

“I didn’t say that!” Rin retorted, getting lost in the argument and not realising what he was saying.

By the time he did, Haru was now _definitely_ smirking at him.

Rin, lost for words, could only blush and look away, propping his elbow on the bar and resting his chin on his palm. Realising Haru had finished his drink, he decidedly ordered two more of whatever it was. He hadn’t had the intention of doing so when he’d originally come out tonight, but now he really felt the need to get absolutely piss-drunk.

After a while, Haru spoke, in a softer tone that told Rin the entire mood of their discussion had shifted, and probably wasn’t going back.

“I don’t kiss anybody, Rin. You think I did that out of the kindness of my heart?” he quipped, and Rin couldn’t help but smile.

“You’ve got a funny way of confessing your love,” he joked, desperately hoping he could lighten the mood. When Haru didn’t deny it or tease back, he froze.

The distraction of their drinks couldn’t have come sooner. Rin downed half of it. It was bitter.

He loved it.

“I hope you’re not bothered.” Haru, for some reason Rin couldn’t fathom, carried on talking even with a drink in front of him.

“You didn’t seem particularly offended by the kiss anyway.”

Rin spluttered, making a strangled noise that he hoped deeply conveyed the mixture of feelings he possessed. Currently he was somewhere in between “please shut the fuck up” and “for the love of everything holy please _fuck me_ ”.

Clearly he failed, as Haru carried on speaking and didn’t reach for Rin’s belt. What a shame. Talking about feelings was way down low on the list of Rin’s least favourite things to do.

“You never got any of my other hints,” Haru said, in a slightly condescending way that made Rin feel as if he so _obviously_ should’ve realised this beforehand, “so when I saw that creepy guy bothering you I just thought I’d take my chances.”

Rin squinted, partly for effect, partly because he’d just finished his drink and had drunk about six of them before Haru showed up, and now everything had suddenly gone out of focus for a moment. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. This whole evening, in fact, has been strange. Don’t you normally shun all forms of social interaction, especially those involving loud music and crowded places, and not involving large bodies of water? You’re not some weird clone of Haru, are you?” He paused.

“Please tell me you’re not Nagisa in disguise,” he deadpanned.

Haru laughed.

No, a more accurate description would be that spirits had blessed Rin, allowing him to hear such an angelic sound.

(Okay, so maybe he was a little drunk.)

First the kissing, then the smiling, and now the laughing. It was as if Haru really did love him.

 _But let’s be real here_ , he chastised himself. _That would never happen. Why him, of all people?_

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Haru said, and then, as an afterthought, added, “you idiot.” It was almost as if he reckoned he’d been too kind.

Rin realised he’d spoken his thoughts out loud.

Haru grew closer and closer, and Rin’s heartbeat accelerated faster and faster.

And then, in a moment of tenderness, Haru took Rin’s right hand in his own, and linked their fingers together.

“Think about it, Rin,” he said quietly, in that same condescending tone, but Rin found that this time he somehow didn’t mind it, “why wouldn’t it be you?”

Before Rin could list the totally viable, extremely long list of reasons why it obviously shouldn’t be him, he found he couldn’t.

Because for the second time that evening, Haru had leaned over and kissed Rin.

But this time, it was real.

Their kisses were soft and slow, sweet and reassuring, nothing like the hard, possessive kiss before. Haru’s hand gently came up to touch Rin’s face, cupping it tenderly. He unlinked their other hands so one of his could settle at the back of Rin’s neck, fingers curling around the soft hair that lay there.

Rin sighed into Haru’s mouth, even as he mumbled nonsense in between kissed, apologies and pleas mixed together  - things he’d locked up inside himself so long but had always wanted to say.

“I’m sorry – shit – about everything – Haru – I don’t deserve you – I’m awful – ”

“Hey,” Haru whispered, his lips leaving Rin’s own to press small kisses to Rin’s cheeks and forehead. “It’s alright,” he consoled.

Rin desperately pressed his mouth against Haru’s once more, wrapping an arm around his waist, pulling him closer, afraid that if he let Haru go one more time, it might be the last, and the moment would be over forever.

“I love you,” he finally gasped out between kisses. “I love you I love you I love you.”

“I know,” Haru replied. “I know.”

After a while of just mindlessly kissing, revelling in the closeness of their bodies, Haru broke away. His eyes shimmered with mirth as Rin’s lips tried to follow him.

“I hate to ruin the moment, Rin,” he said, his tone indicating that he really didn’t, “but you’re crying.”

Rin snapped out of his daze, immediately bringing his hand to the side of his face. Sure enough, it was damp.

He licked his lips. Salt, with the addition of something so definite yet hard to pin down that just had to be Haru.

“What the fuck,” he said, more of a statement than a question, as Haru gave him that trademark shit-eating smirk.

“Don’t worry,” he said, leaning forward to kiss the tear tracks on Rin’s face. Rin squirmed but complied, smiling.

“At least you have your big tough boyfriend to protect you.”

Rin chuckled, trying to hide the fact that his heart felt like it was going to burst out his chest, and he felt, despite the murky atmosphere of the bar, that he was walking on sunshine.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

After a moment’s silence, he pointed to Haru’s glass. “Are you gonna drink that?” he asked.

Haru pressed his forehead against Rin’s, smiling that goddamn smile again. “No, you can have it,” he said, and then buried his head into Rin’s neck.

“Weirdo,” Rin muttered, and he could feel Haru’s muffled laughter against his neck.

Rin sighed happily, sipping the alcohol and running a hand through Haru’s dark hair.

* * *

They were kicked out the bar at midnight, after hours of drinking steadily (for Rin) and finding out exactly what noises Rin made when his neck was kissed (for Haru).

Now, they walked back to Haru and Makoto’s shared apartment in the cool night air, shoulders brushing. Rin was considerably drunker than Haru; he kept trying to drag them into back alleys so they could make out.

“Mmm, I love you so much,” Rin muttered sleepily into Haru’s neck, hanging onto him like a monkey.

“That’s the fiftieth time you’ve said that just on the walk home,” Haru said absentmindedly.

Rin grinned, glad that Haru was doing such a nerdy thing as keeping count.

 _Ha. What a nerd_ , he thought. _My nerd_.

“It’s a pity Makoto’s home tonight, otherwise I’d ravish you,” Rin said, though considering the state he was in he doubted there would’ve been much ravishing tonight anyway. Oh well. Another time.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. His grin grew wild, feral.

“I can’t wait to see Makoto’s face when I tell we’re dating.”

Haru flinched. “I think it’s safer if I tell Makoto.”

Rin pouted. “No way. You’ll reduce the story to like ten words. Let me tell it, I’ll do it justice.”

“I think maybe he’ll prefer my version.”

“ _Haru_.”

Haru sighed. “Fine. Whatever you say, Rin.”

Rin cheered gleefully, and then Haru spoke again.

“I hope you meant what I think you meant and not literal ravishing, because your teeth have always intimidated me. Plus I probably taste like mackerel,” he said.

Rin actually considered it for a moment, and then practically leered at Haru, his eyes raking up and down his body. Haru gently pushed Rin away as he saw another alleyway approaching.

He briefly linked their fingers together again as they walked.

“Baby steps, Rin,” he said with a small smirk. “Baby steps.”

Rin smiled, content, until the tiny bit of belief he’d managed to hold on to after the events of tonight of Haru’s innocence was destroyed when he slipped his hand into Rin’s back pocket, as casual as their held hands before.

“I’ve suddenly been hit with an overt and intense hatred for Makoto and his tendency to frequently stay home,” Rin said.

Haru chuckled.

Rin kissed the side of Haru’s neck. “I’m glad you found me accidentally tonight and saved me from a really crappy evening being hounded by that guy.”

“Actually … you may have to rethink your hatred of Makoto,” Haru spoke. They stopped at a crossing, the traffic lights glowing steadily, green and then orange and then red.

“What do you mean?” Rin asked, though he had a sneaky suspicion of what Haru was going to say next.

Haru shrugged. By now, Rin had figured out that was code for “I know what I should say but I don’t want to say it”.

“He told me where you’d gone tonight. I called you an idiot and then left.”

Rin kissed his cheek. “Now you’re starting to sound like yourself again.” He hummed. “Well then, I guess I can’t be too mad. But I don’t think it’s enough to forgive him for robbing me of the pleasure of being fucked by you tonight.”

Haru thought for a moment, and then, with the tiniest of smirks, dragged Rin into the nearest alley he could find, Rin’s laughter echoing out in the deserted night streets.

**Author's Note:**

> RIN JUST HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS AND INSECURITIES OKAY  
> *ahem*  
> hope you enjoyed, please leave kudos + comment and tell me what you think/liked, i really appreciate it <3  
> also follow me on tumblr @awildsylveons cause i post gay anime nerds a lot and you can have fun screaming at me


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